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[68]
These confessions agreed with what his sister had told him, and tended
greatly to corroborate her testimony, and to free her from the suspicion
of her unfaithfulness to him. So the king having satisfied himself of the
spite which Doris, Antipater's mother, as well as himself, bore to him,
took away from her all her fine ornaments, which were worth many talents,
and then sent her away, and entered into friendship with Pheroras's women.
But he who most of all irritated the king against his son was one Antipater,
the procurator of Antipater the king's son, who, when he was tortured,
among other things, said that Antipater had prepared a deadly potion, and
given it to Pheroras, with his desire that he would give it to his father
during his absence, and when he was too remote to have the least suspicion
cast upon him thereto relating; that Antiphilus, one of Antipater's friends,
brought that potion out of Egypt; and that it was sent to Pheroras by Thendion,
the brother of the mother of Antipater, the king's son, and by that means
came to Pheroras's wife, her husband having given it her to keep. And when
the king asked her about it, she confessed it; and as she was running to
fetch it, she threw herself down from the house-top; yet did she not kill
herself, because she fell upon her feet; by which means, when the king
had comforted her, and had promised her and her domestics pardon, upon
condition of their concealing nothing of the truth from him, but had threatened
her with the utmost miseries if she proved ungrateful [and concealed any
thing]: so she promised, and swore that she would speak out every thing,
and tell after what manner every thing was done; and said what many took
to be entirely true, that the potion was brought out of Egypt by Antiphilus;
and that his brother, who was a physician, had procured it; and that
when Thendion brought it us, she kept it upon Pheroras's committing it
to her; and that it was prepared by Antipater for thee. When, therefore,
Pheroras was fallen sick, and thou camest to him and tookest care of him,
and when he saw the kindness thou hadst for him, his mind was overborne
thereby. So he called me to him, and said to me, "O woman! Antipater hath
circumvented me in this affair of his father and my brother, by persuading
me to have a murderous intention to him, and procuring a potion to be subservient
thereto; do thou, therefore, go and fetch my potion, (since my brother
appears to have still the same virtuous disposition towards me which he
had formerly, and I do not expect to live long myself, and that I may not
defile my forefathers by the murder of a brother,) and burn it before my
face:' that accordingly she immediately brought it, and did as her husband
bade her; and that she burnt the greatest part of the potion; but that
a little of it was left, that if the king, after Pheroras's death, should
treat her ill, she might poison herself, and thereby get clear of her miseries."
Upon her saying thus, she brought out the potion, and the box in which
it was, before them all. Nay, there was another brother of Antiphilus,
and his mother also, who, by the extremity of pain and torture, confessed
the same things, and owned the box [to be that which had been brought out
of Egypt]. The high priest's daughter also, who was the king's wife, was
accused to have been conscious of all this, and had resolved to conceal
it; for which reason Herod divorced her, and blotted her son out of his
testament, wherein he had been mentioned as one that was to reign after
him; and he took the high priesthood away from his father-in-law, Simeon
the son of Boethus, and appointed Matthias the son of Theophilus, who was
born at Jerusalem, to be high priest in his room.
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